Cuban Link Talks About Big Pun, Remy Ma, Joell Ortiz and Forming a New Group

For a younger generation of hip-hop fans who may not be familiar with Cuban Link, be prepared to be in the know.

The former Terror Squad member has a lot of music planned for his reintroduction to the hip-hop game. For starters, he's prepping the releases of his EP Chain of Command and subsequent album, The Missing Link. Link is even throwing around the idea of forming a group with Peedi Peedi (formerly of Roc-a-Fella Records) and fellow former TS crew member and R&B crooner Tony Sunshine.

Here, Cuban talks to XXL about churning out new music, the possibility of formally cementing the group, still repping Big Pun, love for Remy Ma and taking issue with Joell Ortiz over the "Big Pun Back" record.—Mark Lelinwalla

XXLMag.com: Earlier this summer a video hit the net with yourself, Peedi Crakk and Tony Sunshine throwing around the possibility of creating a group together. What are the prospects of that actually materializing?

Cuban Link: It’s definitely something that we’re looking forward to in the future. Me and Peedi’s relationship always been good. Me and Tony–our relationship had been a little off since all that Terror Squad thing about 10 years ago and we just recently, maybe a year ago, got back together on some, Let’s patch things up. Peedi was already down with it. We all been in the game for years, veterans. I think it’s just a matter of time, but it's nothing concrete yet. It's definitely something we're looking forward to in the future.

Have ya’ll even made records together?

We got two joints that we did because we were hyped up on the team we got together. But it’s just a matter of time, like I said. We did two joints that we got in the stash that came out crazy. We got to sit together and think of the big picture.

Do y'all even have a group name?

Right now, nah. There's not even a name to it. Me and Tony's project...we were going to call that Tango & Cash, but when Peedi got added to the equation, we had to rethink things.

It’s interesting because in many ways your stories are similar. Peedi referred to y’all collectively as the underdogs.

Yeah, we’re the underdogs. We’ve been held back for certain reasons. Some niggas deserve the treatment they got when they were with certain people. Bottom line–the talent was always there and people were expecting for me to come out, Tony, Peedi. It never happened. Lot of people question that in their head like, Why they never came out? So, we’re similar in struggle and then the beefs we had with our leaders at the time. Me, Tony and Peedi we went through that. Regardless of what life throws at us, we still here in y’all faces. We love the game of hip-hop.

How much do you hope that this group really formally materializes?

I’m with the unity, man. I believe a team working together is way stronger than one dude working together. I was always in a group. I love the energy, bouncing ideas off each other. Collabs are definitely going to happen.

Away from them, what’s good with you?

I’m in grind mode. I got an English album that’s almost done already that’s going to be called The Missing Link. That’s coming soon. I don’t want to give a date and then it doesn’t come out. I got my EP Chain of Command coming first. I dropped the Chaingang Bully mixtape–that’s online. That’s the mixtape to get everybody familiar with me, just in case the young boys don’t know. I got a Spanish album called, Hijo De La Calle. I ventured into the Spanish world and that’s something I always dabbled with. Me and Tony doing something. That’s five projects I’m hitting niggas with.

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You and Tony were of course part of the Terror Squad, which was a pretty thorough crew back in its prime…

I definitely agree with that. That was definitely built off of blood, sweat and tears, that movement. But you already know, just like any other empire, you got the Julius Caesars of the world and they end up ruining the empire. At the end of the day, that wasn’t built off of one man’s sweat. At the end of the day, it was Pun all day.

We now know you’ve patched things up with Tony. What’s your relationship like with Remy, if any?

Oh Remy…Remy came from through a different cloth. She came through the Pun pipeline. When me and Remy met, it was just that love, no fakeness. We would spend the night in Pun’s house together, chill and talk about hip-hop. When my split from the Terror Squad came, she still kept in contact with me and made sure I was good. Actually, she was the one who drove me to the hospital the day I got the scars on my face.

Word, really?

Yeah. That’s the truth. She was parked in her car outside of Jimmy’s [Bronx Café] and I was already [cut] open. I was already bleeding. I didn’t know. Niggas had to tell me I was bleeding. So, then I took a little knee and said a prayer because when I seen that I went into religious mode like, Pardon me father for what I’m about to do. She saw me there kneeling for about 30 seconds and when I got back up, I saw Remy in the red cherry Mercedes she had. She came up to me and said, What the fuck! I said, Nah, I’m good. I took my shirt off and covered my face. She said, Come on, I’m going to take you to the hospital. That’s what happened, man. I was going to her trials and when she got convicted of it, we talked. That’s my sister. It’s a bad situation where she got a lot of years. There’s not one day when I don’t think about her.

You took issue to the whole Joell Ortiz, “Big Pun Back” joint. Did you ever speak to Joell or is that something you even want to do?

Not really, not really. It is what it is and it is what it was. The media made it out to be hate, but it’s not about that. Niggas got to understand that when it comes to Pun, that was a very personal relationship. That wasn’t the music. That was me and my brother struggling up from ground zero all the way to where he took it, the top of the world. Then I also seen the business side, where niggas used Pun’s name. So, just to take it back to Joell, I was a fan of his before he even got on. I was encouraging my label that I was on to give him a deal, but then he signed to Aftermath. I met him twice. Next thing I see and hear is him with “Big Pun’s Back” over that “Tupac’s Back.” I’m like, Damn, if I’m Tupac’s family, I’m kind of offended. I wouldn’t do “Big Pun’s Back” because I’m too close to the family. Whoever got to do that got to be a blood relative. I wasn’t even going to try to do that. Then I heard Joell do that. As an artist, he’s cool, he’s dope to me, but this is personal. The problem with it isn’t that he’s not showing love, but did you go through the proper avenues? Did you go through his wife at least and asked her? She hit me up and said, Did you hear this nigga on the radio? He didn’t come to me. He said he asked permission from [Fat] Joe and it’s like, Dog, it’s been 11 years already and you live in New York. You have to know that [Pun’s wife] Liza Rios has problems with Joe. Then there was his line, “Please don’t be like this other dude that was thinkin’ dumb/he tried to snuff Joe, so the Puerto Rican rum.” That wasn’t 100% directed at me, but if I see you, I’m going to have to ask you, Yo, dog, what you meant by that? Then he said he’s the new Christopher Rios of rap, so is this a tribute or are you using my man to get your talents shown? I’m sure he thought it was great, but I don’t agree with it. But we not going to take it there. At the end of the day, God bless him. I heard he’s doing his thing with the Slaughterhouse camp, so ok, but it was holy grounds that he touched, so I had to say something.